Ovo Energy Reviews: Give your feedback

System

I managed to get it wrong by going for a 2 year fix with Ovo. One year fixes for my usage are now £140 cheaper. I am 'happy' to pay the exit fee of £60; however, I am not happy to enter another fixed contract with large exit fees when energy prices are falling. Whilst I like Ovo's monthly billing and courteous/helpful CS, I feel that I have no option but to leave Ovo via the MSE Cheap Energy Club. E.oN looks to be a possibility with a £30 cashback and a £10 exit fee. I tried negotiating with Ovo but, at the CS level, they seem happy to lose customers. Any thoughts?

Consumerist

Hengus wrote: »

. . . E.oN looks to be a possibility with a £30 cashback and a £10 exit fee. . . Any thoughts?

In my view, all variable tariffs are way too high at the moment and are not likely to come down significantly on this side of the election - and then only if Labour cannot impose the threatened "freeze" on energy prices.

I did a rough <analysis of longer-term energy fixes> last year and I would agree that they were not particularly good value for money unless prices are rising quickly.

Looking at my region (Eastern) I'd say the e.on Fixed 1 year v14 (Paperless billing) is a pretty good hedge against price reductions (only [STRIKE]£10[/STRIKE] [Oops!] £5 per fuel exit fee) whilst being currently competitive. At this stage in the cycle you're mainly interested in next winter's cost but fixing now, for only a year, puts savings in the bag before next winter.

brewerdave

Hengus wrote: »

I managed to get it wrong by going for a 2 year fix with Ovo. I tried negotiating with Ovo but, at the CS level, they seem happy to lose customers. Any thoughts?

..... I "got it wrong" by going for a 1 year fix with OVO last April. However, it wasn't easy last Spring to guess that the oil price (and hence energy prices) was going to collapse. I've already moved to EON on the MSE deal -even allowing for the exit fees I'm going to be "in profit" by this April. At the moment no longer term fix can get anywhere near my expected spend for the next 11 months. Also, because of the low exit fees from EON I'll walk if an opportunity arises at any time in the next calendar year.
As to OVO -as several of us have found,they are pretty inflexible on allowing internal tariff changes -within a couple of weeks of starting the switch last year they brought out a slightly cheaper tariff -but refused to move me over -and when they talked to me about this recent switch to EON they could offer me nothing other than "it'll cost you £60 to move" !!:)

System

I did get a response from Ovo which included statements like 'there may be plans in the future to discuss exit fees' and 'I am unaware of any imminent change to our leaving fee costs.' I suspect that by standing firm on exit fees, Ovo is hoping that customers will adopt a 'do nothing' approach to switching. This is fine when the potential switching savings less exit fees are small; however, my calculation, at today's E.oN offer, shows a potential saving of £200 - up until June 2016 - taking exit fees and MSE cashback into account. The lesson that I have gleaned from this switch is' now is not the time to choose any energy company with high tariff exit fees'. The energy market has yet to reach its proper market level.

Hammer_Time

Hengus wrote: »

I did get a response from Ovo which included statements like 'there may be plans in the future to discuss exit fees' and 'I am unaware of any imminent change to our leaving fee costs.' I suspect that by standing firm on exit fees, Ovo is hoping that customers will adopt a 'do nothing' approach to switching. This is fine when the potential switching savings less exit fees are small; however, my calculation, at today's E.oN offer, shows a potential saving of £200 - up until June 2016 - taking exit fees and MSE cashback into account. The lesson that I have gleaned from this switch is' now is not the time to choose any energy company with high tariff exit fees'. The energy market has yet to reach its proper market level.

I agree, when I do move from OVO in about four months I will be looking at price and flexability of the plan, sorry OVO but you will lose me as a customer!!!

ec9wrr

Raven_Moon wrote: »

Myself and my husband went with Ovo energy 3 years ago after renting a house and the estate agents signed us with them. first we started paying £148 a month and things where ok. Then a year later they tried to take £289 out of our account. After days of trying to contact them, we finally got hold of someone and complained about not letting us know about what they where doing. We where told that " they wanted to take £299 a month. we managed to get them to put it to £189 but said we wanted to have proof of how much we where using a month. We never got anymore from them and for two years no one read our meters or emailed us or any letters. they then started taking (without letting us know ) £235 a month, we tried and tried to get in contact with someone buy email and phone and never got anything from them and still no meter readings. Then October 2014 they took without warning yet again £465 out of our account. We asked our bank to stopped the payment as we where concerned about the amount Ovo had taken and the bank agreed with us. We yet again tried and tried to get in contact with Ovo and no one got back to us. after nearly a month they got back to us, telling us we owe £2,530. we said that we have had No meter reading for over two years and yet they said we owe it. How can you owe money without any readings for two years.:mad::( has anyone else had this problem?? we have been made ill with all of this
we are seriously looking into going to offgen

You don't need to have given meter readings to owe them money. Regardless of consumption you will owe them something (although not a much as your monthly payments suggest). I've spoken to ovo twice in the last few weeks. Got through to a real person in just a few minutes and had responses to emails less than 24 hours. Are you sure your using the right contact info? If you're concerned the bills aren't based on readings then why don't you supply them with some? Log in online, use the app or phone them.

aluddite

See separate thread re. OVO and Smart Meters. Sorry I'm not allowed to post links apparently ...

Danceswithhorses

Hengus wrote: »

I managed to get it wrong by going for a 2 year fix with Ovo. One year fixes for my usage are now £140 cheaper. I am 'happy' to pay the exit fee of £60; however, I am not happy to enter another fixed contract with large exit fees when energy prices are falling. Whilst I like Ovo's monthly billing and courteous/helpful CS, I feel that I have no option but to leave Ovo via the MSE Cheap Energy Club. E.oN looks to be a possibility with a £30 cashback and a £10 exit fee. I tried negotiating with Ovo but, at the CS level, they seem happy to lose customers. Any thoughts?

In the same boat.
Cautiously took a 2 year fix last year, then oil unexpectedly halved in price, and i can now get much better deals, mid-contract.
Chatting to ovo, i suggested it was cheaper for me to leave ovo, rather than stay (due to the exit fees), and the guy agreed. There was no attempt to keep my custom, so i'm looking elsewhere.
As Scottish Power have such a poor reputation, Eon is looking favourite with me too.

brewerdave

Danceswithhorses wrote: »

Chatting to ovo, i suggested it was cheaper for me to leave ovo, rather than stay (due to the exit fees), and the guy agreed. There was no attempt to keep my custom, so i'm looking elsewhere.

...beginning to look like OVO grew too fast for their own good and are happy to reduce their customer base to a more manageable level.:)

JenDRJ

I've just switched from Ovo after being with them a year (only because my new supplier will be cheaper) I thought Ovo were fab, I was able to adjust my direct debits myself (a joy compared to begging EDF and being refused) I built up credit over the year and earned a bit of interest. They were great at producing monthly bills, really keeps you in touch with what's going on with your payments. I would definitely recommend them. EDF were awful and the only blip I had was EDFs incompetence during my switch, failing to agree on my final readings.